SEASIDE PARK — The steely gaze in the eyes of residents here isn’t one of disappointment, but determination.

The first days of access to the barrier island after superstorm Sandy brought anguish and shock.

Now, as residents return home for the fourth and fifth days, the hard work begins.

“Every day looks a little better,” said Don Sanders, whose family owns a home in the borough. “There are fewer cars and boats in the street. There are less people crying. They’re rolling up their sleeves and getting to work.”

Most residents here have had chances to come back to the barrier island they fled as the storm made a hard left turn toward their shore.

Now, until the 3 p.m. curfew, they are arriving with engineers, insurance adjusters and contractors to help with continuous cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

Marc DiGiorgio, 44, had an engineer survey his N Street summer home Friday. DiGiorgio, a Westfield resident, wants to know if it’s worth repairing or should be torn down.

His personal assessment? It’s destroyed.

“It’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” DiGiorgio said.

Down the street, Susan Gaffney, 54, and her family are tearing out the carpet and walls so they can keep the bungalow that has been in the family for 70 years.

“We’re going to rip it out, down to the studs and rebuild it from bare bones probably next summer,” she said. “It’s just, you don’t know where to begin. You think you’re making headway and you think of something else that needs to be torn out.”

Homes on the borough’s bay side were left with four feet of water, Police Chief Francis Larkin said. The dunes helped homes on the eastern side of town, but ocean water got through and met the bay water in the streets, he said.

Sanders, who lives in Toms River, is helping shield his mother-in-law from the damage sustained by her house on the bay in Seaside Park. It’s a house that Sanders and his wife hoped to one day share.

Sandy tore open the house on its southern end. The eight windows that Sanders and his family looked through to see beautiful sunsets over Barnegat Bay are shattered in pieces in the alley between their home and their neighbor’s home.

“Lord gave us the view and also gave us the heavy part of the storm surge,” Sanders said.

Sandy also washed out three blocks of dunes next to Funtown Pier, which was largely torn apart during the storm.

Michele Corcione, who lives in Kenilworth but has a condo in Seaside Park, couldn’t believe the view Friday of the beach she’s visited on so many summer afternoons.

“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “It’s like somebody came down and ripped out your soul. It’s overwhelming. I can’t explain the feeling. If you live down the Shore, you get it.”